Railroad rail



March 8, 1932.

J. 'CAPELLE RAILROAD RAIL Filed 001'. 4, 1950 Patents Mar. 8, 1932 a siren STATES osnen A. onntmi, or

, a iaczfi enansronn, vmcnsra moan BAIL Application filed October 4,

- Rails for railroads now commonly used are r a length that is a single or unitary piece that comprises ball, web and base. When such a rail must be replaced onaccount of wear, the 6 whole unit must be scrap ed and replaced althoughit may be only t e ball is worn to the point that the railzmust be-discarded. This means great loss in mere cost of metal. It also means serious labor cost because of 10 the necessity of removing spikes from ties and driving spikes. to secure the replaced rail. It means damage to the ties in withdrawing spikes and there is the cost of plugging the spike holes when the new rail is spiked, and, of course, the labor of resp1k1ng is an important item of cost. Again the cost is added to by the necessity of'regaging'the rails and renewing rail joints and tie plates. Other objections to the present-rail construction on account of the joints where the rails come end to end are want of smoothness from the vertical vibrations at the rail ends, the considerable expense of retamping such ends I from time to time to level up the ends, the danger of breakage of the rails from the vertical vibrations of the ends at the joints, wear and tear of the rolling stock because of-the undue strains thereon in consequence of loose; conditions at the joints and the possibility of deraihnents because of bad conditions at the rail joints. i The object, of my invention is .to provide a rail construction by which, in what I consider the best embodiment ofgny invention at the present time, all of the objections just" mentibned will be obviated or overcome and practical benefits ore advantages secured which do not characterize therordinaryra il construction. -Q j r The basic or underlying idea of my' invention is the construction of a rail of two-longitudinal parts, one constituting the ball or wheel-engaged member and the other constituting thebase or tie-engaging member, each of these members having a part which to-' gether e up the rail web, the ball member being removable and replaceable from time to time as -wear.may require, so that only after long periods of time or at all the base 1930. Serial No. 488,488.

member need be removedand hence is permanently a part of the road bed.

My invention consists in whatever is described by or is included within the terms or scope of the appended claims.

' In the accompanying drawings Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a rail embodylng my invention; 7

Fig. 2 is a cross section thereof.

In'the embodiment of my invention shown in the drawings, the cross-section of my. two-part rail is that of-the standard rail and includes the ball, 10, with a single central web, 11, the ball and head being thus T- shaped 'm crosssection and a base or flange, 12, with a central web, 13, that reaches to the underside of theball and has a central slot, 14, to receive the ball web or stem, 11, andengage iton opposite sides. A close or snug fit of theball stem or web in the slot,

14,0f the base is desirable to avoidany play or' lost motion which would be objectionable because of noise that might result but which wouldbe more objectionable as impairing the 1 strength and rigidity of the .rail structure. To secure that snug or tight fit the ball web may be made tapering fromtop to bottom either partially or wholly and the walls of the slot correspondingly formed so that when the ball web is inserted in the'slot to the full extentthere will be close contact of the side surfaces of ball web and slot walls. The abutting side surfaces may be straight or plane or as shown in the drawings they may be slightly curved fromthe underside of the ball downward. If desired, the width of the slot from side to side may be slightly less than the thickness of the web, 11, from side to side "so as to assure the desired snug or close fit, there being enough spring or elasticity in the slotted web of the'base member to allow the thrusting of the ball web into the slot. Preferably to add to the strength and rigidity of the two part or composite rail, the

upper ends, 15, of the slot walls are thick ened-and extend laterally so that their up--v per faces are of considerable extent and bear against the outwardly and u wardlyinclined under face of each side 0 the ball, 10.

By reason of this construction, it-will be evi- 0 p faces offers resistance to such lateral thrust;

Preferably the bottom edge of the ball web contacts with the bottom of the slot so that hearing contact is provided at that point as well as on the underside of the ball. The ball and base members constituting the rail are assembled so as to break joints and at each side of the joints are transversebolts passing through the web portions ofthe two members and at other points along the length of the rail asmay be desired. No joint plates need be provided or employed unless it is preferred because the break joint construction makes that usually unnecessary. As the breaking of the joints eliminates aj oint extending from top to bottom of the rail which exists with the ordinary onepiece rail construction, it will be seen that my rail eliminates the condition hereinbefore pointed out which results in lowering of the rail ends at the joints and the serious consequences to rails, rolling stock and passengers which come from the joint with the one piece rail construction.

An important feature of my invention is the provision of the slot in the base member and the single web on the ball member. This means the minimum of metal for the ball member with the important advantages of saving of cost by saving of metal so that when the ball member is scrapped because of wear there is the minimum loss of metal andthe minimum quantity of metal for the new or replacement ball member; and labor and cost of handling in transportation and installation is saved. If for instance the construction should be reversed so that the slotted web is a part of the ball, then the ball would carry or have the weight of an additional web member which in a rail of standardthirtynine foot length would obviously be an important matter. I

The one-piece rail construction requires a hard, steel to enable the rail ball to resist wear. That means that the entire rail must be made of the same hard steel and that steel does not have the toughness and elasticity which are a safeguard against frac- 7 ture or breakage. By my invention the ball I It'will be evident canibe made of steel suitable to resist wear and the base made of a steel of different texture which will provide toughness and elasthat are important to withstand When aball is worn on one side, it need not be discarded but by reversing it to place its unworn side towards the wheel flange, its use can be continued A rail having the characteristics of my invention is available for use in all railroad constructions whether for steam or electric roads, and I do not confine myself to rails for any particular use.

What I claim is: I

1. A rail having a ball and a base with outwardly extending tie-engaging flanges at the base comprising separately united longitudinal members, the ball having on its underside a single central web member and the base a web member with a vertical slot in which the ball web member fits completely filling the space between the slot side walls, the side walls of the slot being thickened laterally adjacent and contacting with the underside of the ball,-the contactingsurfaces inclining outward and upward the thickening being gradually upward from the outer side.

2. A rail as in claim 1 in which the portion of the web covered by the thickened portions of the side walls is thicker than the portion of the ,web below the same.

3. A rail as in claim 1 in which the thickened portion of the side walls of the slotextend a substantial distance downward over the web member, andothe outer surfaces of said side walls being uninterrupted from top to bottom.

-In testimonywhereof I hereunto afiix my signature.

JOSEPH A. CAPELLE.

ticiti 4 brea age from the stresses that fall upon the rail in use.

that'a rail having the characteristicsof construction shown in drawings and described herein at length W111 obviate or be free from the serious obje'ctions hereinbefore pointed out to the onepiece rail construction and willhave advan- 

